First, the annual Geminid meteor shower - one of the year's best - peaks Thursday night and Friday morning (Dec. 13th and 14th). If predictions are correct, as many as 100 shooting stars each hour will stream out of the constellation Gemini.

Then, on Friday, Dec. 14th, the Moon will glide in front of the Sun for a solar eclipse visible from Hawaii and much of the Americas.

After sunset on Friday and again on Saturday, Dec. 15th, high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for possible Northern Lights triggered by recent solar eruptions.

And finally, on Dec. 15th and Sunday, Dec. 16th, an unusually big and bright near-Earth asteroid named 1998 WT24 will race across northern skies. Amateur astronomers can see the approximately 9th-magnitude object using modest backyard telescopes.